Biscuits from scratch in 20 Minutes
Saturday morning, I slept in until 8:30, went downstairs to the kitchen, and saw a total of 3 bottles of Kate's Buttermilk in the fridge. I called an audible, and made a batch of biscuits from scratch.
I've been using this recipe for years, and the reason I love it is the fact that it has 4 ingredients, can be prepared quickly without much fuss, and makes a batch that perfectly fits inside a standard cast iron skillet - which most home cooks already own. Just make sure you have a clean smooth surface on which to work the dough (cutting board or granite countertop), and you can easily do this yourself.
Ingredients
2 cups of flour
5 tbsp of butter, extremely cold
1 tbs baking powder
Buttermilk (about a cup) - regular milk will work too
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450º
Combine flour and baking powder in a big bowl
Chop up the butter into very small cubes, and add to flour
Add the buttermilk/milk a bit at a time, and mix with a rubber spatula and your hands until the dough begins to fully clump together
Work the dough for no mother than 5 minutes - there should be no leftover loose flour in the bowl
Ensure that the ball of dough is wet to the touch, but not runny
Sprinkle additional flour on your work surface, and put your dough on top of this
Flour both sides of the dough
Using only your hands, shape the dough into a disc about an inch thick - the final size of the disc should fit inside a cast iron skillet (8" - 10" in diameter)
Cut out your biscuits - I use a very small glass to do this - whatever you choose, work quickly
Put all the biscuits into a cast iron pan at room temp
Place the pan into the oven, and let cook for 5 minutes
If you have convection, activate it for the next 5-7 minutes - otherwise just leave it in for about 5-7 minutes